The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has signed an “open skies” air services MoU and initialed an Air Services Agreement (ASA) with the Aeronautical Authority of Ecuador.

The agreement was initialled by Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of the UAE GCAA and Carlos Jacome Utreras, president of the National Civil Aviation Council of Ecuador.

The two delegations agreed that any number of designated airlines of both parties will have the right to perform scheduled air services. The UAE delegation designated Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways, Air Arabia, RAK Airways and flydubai as UAE national airlines under the agreement.

The MoU allows full flexibility on the routes, capacity, number of frequencies and types of aircraft, in any type of service (passenger or cargo). The signed memorandum also includes the exercise of fifth freedom traffic rights. In addition, both parties agreed to allow unrestricted non-scheduled operations between the two countries.-TradeArabia News Service